


Service

by Xobit



Category: Transformers Generation One
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-30
Updated: 2012-07-30
Packaged: 2017-11-11 01:45:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/473082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xobit/pseuds/Xobit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prowl had a dual function in his service to the past Primes, Optimus isn't so sure he wants the same level of 'service'...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Service

Strength was an easy thing, you had it or you didn't. 

Or so most believed. 

There were many kinds of strength though, which was what most forgot. 

He had physical powers that rivaled those of his nemesis; he had a strong personality and a strong moral. But he also had crippling flaws; guilt, fear, feeling inadequate for his destiny. 

Those where things he could not show nor share. Things that had to be kept in and trampled until they did not touch him when he had to be at his strongest. It seldom worked fully; he was never free of his fears and his guilt. 

Nova Prime and Sentinel Prime had been his closest predecessors and all of his staff came from their former staff. There had not been time to build a team for himself, there were only a few he could say had been his friends before his sudden elevation to Prime. 

"Prime, sir?" Optimus forcibly wrenched away from the wall staring he had been engaged in. It wasn't like the wall would actually solve his problem. Nor would any of his work get done if he didn't get himself out of the depressive spiral he was struggling with. 

It was becoming harder as time went on, endless fighting and death seeming to fill his every orn. 

“Yes, Prowl?” His inherited second in command was a good mech. Hard working, discreet and so logical he seemed cold. Frozen and disapproving of emotional outbursts and time wasting theatrics. Optimus supposed that was good qualities in a second-in-command. Sentinel had kept him on after Nova’s death after all. 

“I have the reports from the fighting outside of Kaon, sir.” The load of datapads were put down on the table but the smaller mech didn’t leave the office as he normally did. 

“Was there anything else?” He couldn’t think of anything, bar an utter catastrophe, that would make Prowl waste time.

“Yes, sir…” But despite the sure tone Prowl still hesitated, as if he was waiting for something. An order? Optimus wasn’t sure at all, this was so far from any behavior his second in command had ever displayed. 

“Well?” Even if he had to go back to reading reports Optimus would prefer to be alone right now. 

Actually he would prefer the company of friends but Prowl was not that, he was hardly more than someone he had randomly met. The smaller mech refused to let him be anything more than that.   
To his surprise the other got onto his knees and then disappeared entirely under rim of his desk. A moment later he nearly jumped up as warm hands came to rest on his knee joints, gently pushing for him to open his legs. 

Optimus resisted for a moment but then let curiosity take over. He had no idea what Prowl had in mind, it couldn’t possibly be what it~

“Primus!” This time he did jump up, chair clattering to the floor and desk jumping back as he pushed to propel himself away from the warm glossa on his thigh.

“What are you th…” The normally so cool and collected mech looked up at him, optics large and shocked… and wounded. For a long moment he saw the mech under the professional and he had somehow managed to hurt him, then the mask settled into place and Prowl got up. 

“I am sorry, sir, I misinterpreted your signals. It wi-will not happen again.” If it hadn’t been for that one small break he would have thought he had dreamed it all. But it was there a slight weaver of Prowl’s normally so steady and controlled voice. 

“I will take my le~”

“Oh no you don’t!” Optimus gripped a white shoulder and held the smaller mech in place. 

“I want an explanation for this! A good one…” Preferably. Though he wasn’t sure he was going to get one at all, he wasn’t about to beat it out of the tense mech. But then the shoulder under his hand slumped a little.

“You seemed so unhappy… Sentinel used to demand it often, Nova… he was insatiable. I don’t mind it, sir! I’ve been waiting for you to order me. But this dark cycle you seemed so pensive, I thought… I thought there would be no harm in offering a little pleasure…” Shock nearly made him let go of the mech. He couldn’t believe that his predecessors would have… it was just wrong!

“I would never ask you for interfacing, Prowl!” Snapping he aggressively he was surprised to find that so open and volurable look directed at him again, pain even deeper now. 

“Yes, sir, I shall remember not to offer again.” Prowl had always sounded controlled but this sounded… dead. Complete emotional shut down. 

Optimus let him go, not at all sure what to do about this. It did not seem like he had handled it very well but Prowl didn’t really allow him to ask. Not at the time and certainly never later. He was efficient and punctual as ever but nothing more. Never more…

* * *

The war escalated. A young mech named Jazz came to Optimus attention and was promoted to his third in commend. He seemed to get Prowl a little out of the shell he had built himself and Optimus relaxed a bit, thinking that everything was as it should be.

The Ark was build. It was launched into space and crashed on a planet circling a young yellow star. 

There on Earth everything came to a standstill. A struggle without end, and yet different from the war as it had been on Cybertron. 

Optimus was no longer alone though he was still lonely at times. He had gained friends among those that had served him faithfully since his rise to Prime. He had chosen his own officers, some kept from the old teams of Nova and Sentinel and some, like Jazz, his own decisions. 

Prowl was as always there, by his side to keep all things in line and ease the burden of leading that fell so heavily on a Prime’s shoulders. 

But that was one thing that changed on Earth. While Prowl was as effective as ever in his job he became so much more reclusive. At least to him, Optimus felt like he had to hunt him down every time he needed him… and he so often found him with Jazz. 

It was far from him to be mad that they seemed to have found something together and yet he seemed to be… annoyed by it. 

Jealous… 

Reports got to his desk as they should, watch schedules got done in time. He had nothing to be annoyed about! And no right to feel that ugly feeling eating at him. 

Why was he even feeling such a thing? Prowl was his own mech, he did not belong to him though both Nova and apparently Sentinel had acted as if he was a possession to use. That was what he had implied so long ago at least. 

It was at a party, years after they awakened on Earth that he realized that Prowl was not the one who had changed. He had looked deep into a high grade cube, thoughts muzzy and preoccupied and when he glanced up to see Jazz and Prowl on the inopportune dance floor he had to leave in a hurry. 

Leave or make a scene over a mech that certainly hadn’t so much as thought of wanting him for eons. 

He was in love. For how long? He did not know the answer to that but it was the truth. He loved Prowl. 

Loved him. 

And had lost him to a mech he could not hate or even be angry at. Jazz was a good friend too, a staunch support and someone as worthy of happiness as he himself was. 

Yet he was the one who was alone, the one standing outside of the Ark looking up and constellations that were still strange even after so many Earth years had gone by. 

“You could tell him how you feel.” The voice was too low for Optimus to recognize, almost too low to hear at all. He didn’t turn or take his optics from the sky.

“He offered me something once, I declined… I wonder what would have happened had I not.” 

“You would have been without a second in command.” 

“And you know that why?” 

“Because I would have lost what respect you had earned from me, and eventually I would have believed that no Prime was worth serving. Maybe I would have become a Decepticon.” A hand rested against his back and Optimus shuddered a little, unexpected… wanted.

“Why are you here now then?” 

“Jazz.”

“Jazz?” He questioned uncertainly, not sure what his perceived rival had to do with anything that was, or was not, between them. 

“I was hurt that you rejected me, though I even then knew it was better then you accepting. Jazz helped me see clearly, he is like the brother I never had for all the differences between us. But he is nothing more than that, Optimus… he won’t ever be more than that.” 

“But I can?” 

“You are!”

“You are everything…” Prowl’s voice had dwindled again, nothing but a whisper and the hand against his back trembled before falling away. He knew that Prowl was getting ready to walk away, to leave things between them unfinished once again. 

Turning he caught his second in command by his shoulder, turning him around and retracting his mask so that he could slant his lips over the surprise parted pale ones. 

“I am not letting you go after that sort of confessions!” Resting his helmet against Prowl’s chevron he smiled, voice rough with emotions. And perhaps he was still a little fuzzy from the high grade he had had… 

“I just wanted to let you think about… everything.” 

“I have been thinking long enough, Prowl, and dreaming long enough. Isn’t it time that we both stopped being lonely?” His answer was another kiss, and Prowl wasn’t in the least bit restrained in his kissing…

**Author's Note:**

> A prize in my occasional (rare) comment contest on DeviantArt, won by mysterycrow666
> 
> Beta  
>  AKzeal


End file.
